Pathways-VA to receive $300,000 EPA brownfields training grant (VA)

PHILADELPHIA (July 12, 2011)-- The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency today
announced that Pathways-VA in eastern Virginia will receive a
$300,000 Environmental Workforce Development and Job Training Grant
to help train low-income residents for environmental jobs in
Petersburg, Va.

Pathways-VA, a non-profit organization, will use
the funding to train 64 students for entry-level environmental jobs
helping to clean up abandoned and contaminated properties in
Petersburg.

"EPA’s brownfields training grants
demonstrate how creating jobs and protecting the environment can go
hand-in-hand,” said Shawn M. Garvin, administrator for
EPA’s mid-Atlantic region. “This funding will help
ensure that brownfields cleanup projects in Petersburg have the
trained workforce needed to revitalize contaminated properties and
provide new job opportunities for community members."

Students will be recruited from unemployed and
underemployed residents, and veterans transitioning from the
military, including the Fort Lee Army Base.

Since 1998, EPA has awarded more than $35
million under the Environmental Workforce Development and Job
Training Program. As of May 2011, more than 6,683 individuals have
been trained through the program, and more than 4,400 have been
placed in full-time employment in the environmental field with an
average starting hourly wage of $14.65. The development of this
green workforce will allow the trainees to develop skills that will
make them competitive in the construction and redevelopment
fields.

The EPA grant in Petersburg is one of 21
national grants announced today. EPA’s brownfields program
encourages redevelopment of America’s estimated 450,000
abandoned and contaminated waste sites. For more information on
environmental workforce development and job training grants,
visit:http://www.epa.gov/brownfields/job.htm.